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6 days ago, a Cubs legend passed away. Ron Santo was the Cubs' radio color man, a talented and Hall of Fame caliber third baseman, and the Cubs' all time biggest fan. His death was mourned and his life was celebrated at the beautiful Holy Name Cathedral tonight, with a public visitation. I was honored to be there...
When the Cubs are winning (rare), half the city is happy. When the Sox are winning, half the city is happy. But when the Bears are winning (and they are unexpectedly undefeated), the city's sports fans are truly unified in their joyous fandom. This is the logic behind the thoughtful ad campaign that has been spotted around Chicago on billboards and in the El trains. One city. One team. Let's keep it going fellas.
On Friday, Lauren and I traveled north to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Saturday, along with some friends, we will embark on the Fat Tire Memorial Bike Tour around the entirety of beautiful Lake Geneva. The ride, which raises college scholarship money for local students, is punctuated by several stops at the finer drinking establishments in the Lake Geneva area. Hence the conversion of my hockey helmet into a make shift bike helmet... Safety first.
Thursday night, Lauren, Doug, Michelle, and I traveled to the South Side to say adios to the Sox for the season. The Twins completed a sweep of the South Siders, and in doing so, dashed any final hope the Sox had of catching the Twins to win the AL Central and make the playoffs. It was a classicly cool autumn evening and a great game filled with homers and bean balls. One last dog with grilled onions was consumed. Goodbye until next spring. It is football season... (and as I write this the Bears are 2-0!).
I awoke this Saturday to find two great reminders that Chicago has a champion sports team in town. After the Hawks won the Stanley Cup, I collected a few newspapers, and for my birthday, Lauren had two of them framed. A fantastic gift, but my lovely wife as banned them from the walls of our new home. They will make the trip to my office this week... I was also reminded that the NHL season is just 6 weeks away. Gotta love the short off-season.
More Wrigley shots, this time captured from a left field corner rooftop. It is fitting that these pictures appear dark... the Cubs suffered an 18-1 loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers. One of the worst losses in franchise history... Another season down the drain, another summer's hopes dashed... Wait 'till next year...
In another inexplicably frustrating turn of events in the saga that is our condo and the condo purchasing process, the contractors who are finishing our punch list replaced the knob on one of our doors. They installed the new knob upside down, which for some reason caused Lauren's key not to work. Her key was a copy, mine was an original, and the original, for some reason, was not affected and still works. For the past few days, Lauren has been using the contractors' lock box to get access to their key so she can get into our condo.
So, knowing that the contractors would not fix the knob or make us a new key, I decided to be a good husband and buy Lauren a present, a copy of my working key. I spared no expense and ponied up for the deluxe Cubs key at the Ace Hardware. The only trouble is that Lauren was born, raised, and remains a Sox fan. She was less than thrilled with my gag gift... I'm sure it is only a matter of time before she switches her key for mine while I sleep. Until then, she carries the Cubs, and 100+ years of misery, with her everywhere she goes...
After a near 3 week hiatus, I got back on the ice for a good skate over at Johnny's. After returning home (our second to last in Park Ridge), my gear was permeated with the foulest of smells. A wash and air dry was long overdue...
Made a trip to enemy territory with Lauren and the In-Laws tonight to take in a ballgame between the White Sox and the Angels. For the first hour and forty-five minutes, the rain was the big winner. It was Polish heritage night. Polka music was played. AJ Pierzynski picked off two runners. I ate a Polish sausage...
Yesterday some associates at my firm, myself included, took the summer interns to Wrigley Field for a ball game. It was a beautiful day for baseball... but the baseball, it was not beautiful. Gorzo (pictured), filling in for the mentally indisposed Zambrano, churned out a quality start, but the anemic Cubs offense failed to scrape across even a single run against a rookie starting pitcher with 4.5+ ERA. The Cubs are now 3-9 against the lowly Bucs this season.
Day Three of the Tournament - The Final Day - Yesterday, Uncle Mike and I teed it up early in the morning and squared off against a seventy-something Elmira lifer named Tommy Hamilton and his partner, Buddy. Tommy is what you would call, "sneaky-good." He's old, he does not hit the ball very far, but he is deadly straight and he can putt with the best of them. Plus he has the benefit of probably nearly a thousand trips around the ECC course. This guy was a par machine. He made par after par after par... except for the birdie he made after Mike and I missed 2 short birdie putts on the par three seventh. It all came down to the 18th hole, a nasty little, uphill, 115 yard par three known as The "Jewett" Hole. This tester has a tiny green that slopes severely from back to front and from right to left. Wedges hit to the front half of the green spin off the front with regularity. Shots to the back of the green and to the right side (AKA "jail") set up chips or putts that are 80% likely to roll right off of the green. The pin was cut in the most lethal of locations, the front-left. If you want to have an uphill put, there is about a 5 feet by 5 feet section of the green where that could happen. And can you guess where Tommy hit it? Mike and I missed the green and made 4s. Tommy 2 putted for par, and won the match.
After a couple of beers, one bought by Tommy and one bought by Buck (who beat us on Thursday), we made our way back to the hotel and passed Harris Hill, the soaring capitol of the world. Soaring is flight in a glider like plane, only the "sailplane" does not have a motor and uses natural updrafts in the atmosphere to maintain altitude. While this sounds fun, and maybe I'll put it on the "to do" list for my next visit, for now I'll remember my drives soaring into the Elmira pines, and my putts soaring past tough cup placements. You win this one Buck, Tommy, and ECC, but I hope to back to compete again...
The sun sets over an Appalachian hill in Elmira... Earlier in the day, the figurative sun set on our first round match on the 17th green when Buck, a massive, Wilford Brimley-like local (with a bristly fu-manchu mustache and a snaggle tooth) and his wiry partner Mike made par to halve the hole and defeat Uncle Mike and I, 2 and 1. Experience is everything on this golf course, and Buck and Mike used their knowledge of the course and a steady approach to best Mike and I who were... erratic. Better shots tomorrow...
Day One of the Tournament - Qualifying - Kicking off the weekend, all 2 man teams played a best ball qualifying round. It was an educational go, my first trip around all 18 holes of this lush, woodsy, undulating, elevation changing course. Tee shots are challenging, but not unfair, and the par threes are all reasonable. It is the greens, the smallish and lightning quick greens, where strokes build up and build up quickly. The rolling Appalachian mountains that surround the course played tricks on this flat-lander's mind while reading putts. Putts that look uphill, are actually of a devious downhill variety. Putts that look downhill can stop short if directed up toward the mountains. Subtle breaks lie in wait and carry short puts away from the center of the cup... We fired a 78 as a team, good enough to place us in the second flight for the remainder of the weekend. Match play starts tomorrow at 9 AM...
Following the round, Uncle Mike drove me around the various Elmira neighborhoods including the houses he and my father lived in growing up, along with Grandpa Thom, Grandma Marg, Uncle David, and Aunt Annie Pie. Elmira is the epitome of a working class town, with a rich history dating back to the Revolutionary War. Like many old blue collar towns, Elmira has seen better days... As we made our way through Elmira's east side, we passed an old steel foundry, now boarded up, that pre-dates the Civil War.
On Wednesday, I began my trip to Elmira, New York to play in the Elmira Country Club Annual Invitational Tournament with my Uncle Mike. Due to inclement weather in Chicago and Detroit (where I was making my connection to Elmira), my first flight was delayed five hours. The flight was supposed to leave at 7 am, and we actually boarded on time, got to the runway, where we sat and sat, for an hour, waiting for clearance from Detroit to take off and secure a flight pattern. While we waited, storm clouds drew nearer and nearer... before clearance was secured, the storms hit Midway causing a ground stop. Taxi, jetway, deplane, terminal, gate, more waiting... As I sat in the gate, I heard all sorts of disgruntled travelers take their frustrations out on the hapless Delta employees. While I empathsized with the travelers, I felt sympathy for the workers. Despite the wishes of JoDean Willoughby from South Detroit, who was "just so pissed, my word," the Midway Airport Delta Airlines workers do not control the weather.
I commandeered an electrical outlet, powered my MacBook, and was able to watch, in its entirety, the thrilling World Cup Match between Algeria and the USA. I let out a yelp as Landon Dononvan's extra time goal found the back of the net, drawing crotchety looks from the elderly travelers also waiting on their delayed flights, and prompting assuring nods from other sports fans in the terminal who clearly also new what had just happened.
Eventually, I made it to Detroit at about 2 p.m. local time where I had a guaranteed seat on a 9:30 flight to Elmira. I got to the gate, and attempted my best to charm a Delta representative to the top of the standby list for a 3:20 flight. Electrical outlet, MacBook, ESPN3, Germany vs. Ghana... halftime... 3:20 flight boarding... passenger Grady to the Gate 22 kiosk... "Sir, we have a seat for you on this flight. It is in the emergency exit row, I sure hope that is OK with you." Indeed it was...
Straight from the airport to the first tee to meet Uncle Mike... We managed to play nine holes before hunger took over and the sunlight escaped the skies. I saw nine of the most difficult greens I have ever played in my 20 years fiddling with this ever frustrating and rewarding sport. It is going to be a challenging weekend...
The Blackhawks organization (including the front office, Hawks legends, friends, family, trainers, coaches, and the players themselves) was proudly on display this morning and afternoon in downtown Chicago. An estimated 2 million fans flooded the loop to see a championship celebration, the caliber of which this city has not seen in a very long time, if ever. I was lucky enough to for the championship caravan to travel right past my office, and I was able to scurry down to street level and secure a good vantage point near the northeast corner of Michigan & Randolph. I'm not normally one for parades, on account of the clowns that usually linger about... but this one, this championship parade, it was just fine with me.
Continuing Chicago's tradition of coloring water for special occasions, the water in the Daley Plaza Pool & Fountains has been dyed (Stanley Cup Champion) Blackhawk Red for the playoff weeks. I walked to the plaza to take some photos, and wouldn't you know it, a black hawk flew right in to my shot... Ok, so it's a pigeon... Blackhwaks parade photos tomorrow...
6 days ago, a Cubs legend passed away. Ron Santo was the Cubs' radio color man, a talented and Hall of Fame caliber third baseman, and the Cubs' all time biggest fan. His death was mourned and his life was celebrated at the beautiful Holy Name Cathedral tonight, with a public visitation. I was honored to be there... 
When the Cubs are winning (rare), half the city is happy. When the Sox are winning, half the city is happy. But when the Bears are winning (and they are unexpectedly undefeated), the city's sports fans are truly unified in their joyous fandom. This is the logic behind the thoughtful ad campaign that has been spotted around Chicago on billboards and in the El trains. One city. One team. Let's keep it going fellas. 
Monday Night Football. Bears v. Packers. And Lauren made her first attempt at pizza from scratch. Success all over the place. The Bears won. Lauren's pies were outstanding. An outstanding evening on all levels.
On Friday, Lauren and I traveled north to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Saturday, along with some friends, we will embark on the Fat Tire Memorial Bike Tour around the entirety of beautiful Lake Geneva. The ride, which raises college scholarship money for local students, is punctuated by several stops at the finer drinking establishments in the Lake Geneva area. Hence the conversion of my hockey helmet into a make shift bike helmet... Safety first. 
Thursday night, Lauren, Doug, Michelle, and I traveled to the South Side to say adios to the Sox for the season. The Twins completed a sweep of the South Siders, and in doing so, dashed any final hope the Sox had of catching the Twins to win the AL Central and make the playoffs. It was a classicly cool autumn evening and a great game filled with homers and bean balls. One last dog with grilled onions was consumed. Goodbye until next spring. It is football season... (and as I write this the Bears are 2-0!). 
Three brave souls (pictured at a post game watering hole) traveled to Wrigley Field on Sunday to say goodbye to the Cubs and Wrigley Field until next spring. The weather and the ambiance were unparalleled, but the quality of play on the field, sadly, conformed to reputation and fell short of expectation. Though the Cubs won the weekend series against the NY Mets, the North-Siders dropped this game 18 to 5. Typical...
I awoke this Saturday to find two great reminders that Chicago has a champion sports team in town. After the Hawks won the Stanley Cup, I collected a few newspapers, and for my birthday, Lauren had two of them framed. A fantastic gift, but my lovely wife as banned them from the walls of our new home. They will make the trip to my office this week... I was also reminded that the NHL season is just 6 weeks away. Gotta love the short off-season.
More Wrigley shots, this time captured from a left field corner rooftop. It is fitting that these pictures appear dark... the Cubs suffered an 18-1 loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers. One of the worst losses in franchise history... Another season down the drain, another summer's hopes dashed... Wait 'till next year...
In another inexplicably frustrating turn of events in the saga that is our condo and the condo purchasing process, the contractors who are finishing our punch list replaced the knob on one of our doors. They installed the new knob upside down, which for some reason caused Lauren's key not to work. Her key was a copy, mine was an original, and the original, for some reason, was not affected and still works. For the past few days, Lauren has been using the contractors' lock box to get access to their key so she can get into our condo.
After a near 3 week hiatus, I got back on the ice for a good skate over at Johnny's. After returning home (our second to last in Park Ridge), my gear was permeated with the foulest of smells. A wash and air dry was long overdue...
Made a trip to enemy territory with Lauren and the In-Laws tonight to take in a ballgame between the White Sox and the Angels. For the first hour and forty-five minutes, the rain was the big winner. It was Polish heritage night. Polka music was played. AJ Pierzynski picked off two runners. I ate a Polish sausage...
Yesterday some associates at my firm, myself included, took the summer interns to Wrigley Field for a ball game. It was a beautiful day for baseball... but the baseball, it was not beautiful. Gorzo (pictured), filling in for the mentally indisposed Zambrano, churned out a quality start, but the anemic Cubs offense failed to scrape across even a single run against a rookie starting pitcher with 4.5+ ERA. The Cubs are now 3-9 against the lowly Bucs this season. 
Having been ousted from the ECC Invitational Best Ball Tournament, Uncle Mike and I decided we would have a go at one more round, this time at the Mark Twain Golf Course. Elmira is rife with history relating to Mark Twain, as the celebrated American lecturer and author spent a number of summers in Elmira writing (he also married his wife, Olivia, in Elmira). My uncle even told me that my great grandfather used to watch Twain's donkey after the author would ride the donkey into town from his farm up on a hill above town. My great grandpa's fee in the 1870s, 1 penny.
Day Three of the Tournament - The Final Day - Yesterday, Uncle Mike and I teed it up early in the morning and squared off against a seventy-something Elmira lifer named Tommy Hamilton and his partner, Buddy. Tommy is what you would call, "sneaky-good." He's old, he does not hit the ball very far, but he is deadly straight and he can putt with the best of them. Plus he has the benefit of probably nearly a thousand trips around the ECC course. This guy was a par machine. He made par after par after par... except for the birdie he made after Mike and I missed 2 short birdie putts on the par three seventh. 
The sun sets over an Appalachian hill in Elmira... Earlier in the day, the figurative sun set on our first round match on the 17th green when Buck, a massive, Wilford Brimley-like local (with a bristly fu-manchu mustache and a snaggle tooth) and his wiry partner Mike made par to halve the hole and defeat Uncle Mike and I, 2 and 1. Experience is everything on this golf course, and Buck and Mike used their knowledge of the course and a steady approach to best Mike and I who were... erratic. Better shots tomorrow...
Day One of the Tournament - Qualifying - Kicking off the weekend, all 2 man teams played a best ball qualifying round. It was an educational go, my first trip around all 18 holes of this lush, woodsy, undulating, elevation changing course. Tee shots are challenging, but not unfair, and the par threes are all reasonable. It is the greens, the smallish and lightning quick greens, where strokes build up and build up quickly. The rolling Appalachian mountains that surround the course played tricks on this flat-lander's mind while reading putts. Putts that look uphill, are actually of a devious downhill variety. Putts that look downhill can stop short if directed up toward the mountains. Subtle breaks lie in wait and carry short puts away from the center of the cup... We fired a 78 as a team, good enough to place us in the second flight for the remainder of the weekend. Match play starts tomorrow at 9 AM...
On Wednesday, I began my trip to Elmira, New York to play in the Elmira Country Club Annual Invitational Tournament with my Uncle Mike. Due to inclement weather in Chicago and Detroit (where I was making my connection to Elmira), my first flight was delayed five hours. The flight was supposed to leave at 7 am, and we actually boarded on time, got to the runway, where we sat and sat, for an hour, waiting for clearance from Detroit to take off and secure a flight pattern. While we waited, storm clouds drew nearer and nearer... before clearance was secured, the storms hit Midway causing a ground stop. Taxi, jetway, deplane, terminal, gate, more waiting... As I sat in the gate, I heard all sorts of disgruntled travelers take their frustrations out on the hapless Delta employees. While I empathsized with the travelers, I felt sympathy for the workers. Despite the wishes of JoDean Willoughby from South Detroit, who was "just so pissed, my word," the Midway Airport Delta Airlines workers do not control the weather.
The Blackhawks organization (including the front office, Hawks legends, friends, family, trainers, coaches, and the players themselves) was proudly on display this morning and afternoon in downtown Chicago. An estimated 2 million fans flooded the loop to see a championship celebration, the caliber of which this city has not seen in a very long time, if ever. I was lucky enough to for the championship caravan to travel right past my office, and I was able to scurry down to street level and secure a good vantage point near the northeast corner of Michigan & Randolph. I'm not normally one for parades, on account of the clowns that usually linger about... but this one, this championship parade, it was just fine with me.
Continuing Chicago's tradition of coloring water for special occasions, the water in the Daley Plaza Pool & Fountains has been dyed (Stanley Cup Champion) Blackhawk Red for the playoff weeks. I walked to the plaza to take some photos, and wouldn't you know it, a black hawk flew right in to my shot... Ok, so it's a pigeon... Blackhwaks parade photos tomorrow...
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